ANIMONDAYS: Revolutionary Girl Utena: The Movie (1999)

ANIMONDAYS exists to exhibit great works of animation from all over the world (but mostly Japan). This month we're delving into a wild fairy tale with Revolutionary Girl Utena: The Movie! On paper, Utena shouldn't work. The film compresses an entire season of magical girl high school television into 90 minutes, discarding context and racing through character motivations at a break-neck pace. Despite this, the filmmakers pulled off something miraculous - what's left after distilling the plot is wave after wave of fairytale images and violent implications rolling over one another, mixing into a micro-dosed cocktail of rose petals and winding stairways. You don't understand the plot, but you damn well FEEL it. If you have any love for the off-beat, the artistic, the grossly flamboyant, or just a good coming-of-age-story, you owe it to yourself to experience this fever dream of a film. Presented in Japanese with English subtitles. Rated PG-13 (our best approximation) for sexual themes, partial nudity, implied abuse, and sword violence.

$5 TICKETS